On the afternoon of June 27th, three hours after the battle ended.
Uzon Hassan led New Army and six thousand cavalry to retreat to a valley. After a short rest, he decided to head east overnight.
Before leaving, he arranged for a confidant noble to go to Van and ask him to lead the troops in the city to hold on and try to delay as much time as possible.
After traveling all night, the nobles arrived at Van at noon the next day and read Sultan's decree to the officers.
After the meeting, these officers returned to their respective units and reported the news to the soldiers below. The soldiers then spread the news to the residents of the city, causing panic throughout the city in a short period of time.
In endless fear, a large number of residents rushed to the city gate with their luggage, hoping to escape to the mountains for refuge.
There is a lake on the west side of Van, and there is a city gate in each of the remaining three directions. The defenders of North Gate did their duty and carefully observed the young and middle-aged people in the crowd to prevent some deserters from mixing in the crowd.
"Don't be messy! Queue up and leave the city. Don't dare to be verbose. The master's musket is not a decoration!"
The captain of the garrison fired a shot into the sky, scaring the people back. Some children covered their ears and cried loudly, which made the soldiers even more upset.
More than ten minutes later, the captain found that the crowd on the street gradually dispersed, and there were only more than 300 people left in the originally crowded and long queue. Some people were whispering to each other, talking about the situation of East Gate.
The captain asked the people, "What are you talking about? What happened to East Gate?"
"I heard that all the defenders of East Gate had fled and no one was guarding the city gate. My cousin came over specially to ask us to evacuate from East Gate." After saying that, the resident left in a hurry, carrying his luggage and holding his children.
Upon hearing the news, the captain and soldiers panicked instantly.
If the friendly forces collapse without taking advantage, the city may not be able to be defended.
Everyone looked at each other, and someone tentatively took a step to the side. Finding that the superior did not stop him, he took a few more steps, then strode out of the city gate and disappeared from everyone's sight.
The next moment, the remaining soldiers dispersed in a hurry. Some ran towards the city, preparing to run away with their families. Some people had no worries and called a few comrades to escape from the city together.
Usually, the survival probability of escaping together is much higher than that of escaping alone.
A single soldier is likely to be attacked by bandits and villagers. After killing the soldier, the attackers will take away his armor and weapons.
Even if they are not attacked along the way, the defeated soldiers still face the pressure of survival, and usually have only two options: stealing or begging.
Assuming a group of broken soldiers march together, the probability of being attacked is greatly reduced. They can also threaten villages along the way and force the villagers to provide food.
Or, they gradually become a new group of bandits, entrenched in a certain forest or mountainous area, and rely on robbery to satisfy their personal desires.
At the same time, Dragoons led by Boranov rushed to Van, encountering some broken troops from time to time along the way.
"Ignore them and move on!"
Boranov Not wanting to waste time chasing down scattered troops, he led thousands of cavalry to march south and arrived at Van North Gate before sunset.
Unfortunately, the city gate in front has been closed, a large amount of debris is scattered outside the city, and the White Sheep flag is flying above the city wall. The defender commander seems to have the situation under control.
Van is a large city in the southeast of the plateau with high strategic value. A new-style city wall was built outside the city, and many small cannons can be seen behind the battlements.
Sensing the enemy's arrival, White Sheep Artillery panicked and fired at the cavalry hundreds of steps away.
Bang! Bang!
More than ten artillery shells hit the open space, splashing some fine dust, forcing the Dragoonss to withdraw from the firing range.
"Leave two companies of the first battalion to guard North Gate, and the rest will follow me."
Boranov led the remaining cavalry and marched clockwise around the city wall to observe the situation of East Gate and South Gate.
On the way, he discovered that some soldiers secretly hung ropes from the city wall and used the ropes to climb to the ground to escape.
"The morale of the defenders is very low. This siege should not last more than a month."
On June 29, more and more Rome troops arrived outside Van.
At noon, a purple flag slowly appeared, and tens of thousands of people shouted "mpat!" in unison. Cheers surged toward the city wall like a tide, and the defenders realized a cruel fact: Vitus is coming.
Before the expedition, Uzon Hassan left five thousand men for Van, and yesterday afternoon he left two thousand. At this moment, the remaining three thousand soldiers were in a low mood, whispering among themselves, and felt that they should surrender as soon as possible.
Seeing that the attackers began to dig trenches and set up artillery, the defenders in the south of the city could not bear the pressure and took the lead in opening the city gate and rushing out of the city.
As Rome soldiers took over the defense of South Gate, the remaining defenders surrendered one after another, and a few people retreated to the castle on the top of the mountain, vowing to stay here for a long time.
"What a steep terrain."
Vitus raised the telescope and observed the castle standing on the rocky ridge from a distance. The mountain road was narrow and the attackers could not invest too many troops and could only persuade them to surrender or besiege it.
As expected, the defenders refused to surrender and claimed to fight to the last man.
Vitus responded indifferently, "Let the prisoners of war build fortifications at the foot of the mountain and arrange for three Auxiliary Battalion to garrison Van. Since the defenders refuse to surrender, then let them do as they wish."
As the Rome emperor, Vitus tried his best to maintain a decent image. If the defenders surrendered voluntarily, he was willing to let these people return to their hometown. No matter whether they were Persia soldiers or White Sheep soldiers.
Once the defenders reject this opportunity, there will be no room for regret in the future.
Initially, Eastern Roman Empire and Venice went to war. When Euboea was recovered, the Red Fort defenders in the southeast of the island refused to surrender.
After more than a year of delay, the Red Fort defenders ran out of food and wanted to surrender, but Yamashita Militia refused.
Militia Captain did not give the defenders a second chance and continued to maintain the siege. The result was that most of the defenders died during the breakout at night, and the baron and a few defenders died in the castle.
After the incident came out, Vitus recognized this behavior.
If the Red Fort defenders are allowed to hold on for a year or two, surrender honorably when they run out of food, and then return to their hometowns unharmed, what will happen to the Roman Empire's face?
This time the siege of Van Castle is also handled in the same way:
No matter how long the defenders can hold out, Eastern Roman Empire soldiers will accompany them until they fulfill their promise.
In early July, Vitus occupied most of the strongholds surrounding Lake Van.
He decided to continue his previous plan and attack Diyarbakir Basin in the southwest.
"This basin is nourished by the Tigris River and is rich in products. The cultivated land area exceeds Konya Plain. It is summer, and the army can collect enough supplies."
On July 10th, Vitus came to the eastern part of the basin, with a river crossing in front of it.
Now is the driest period of the year, with almost no rainfall. The sky is blue, the sun is hot, the river surface reflects dazzling white light, and there are wheat fields and orchards near the river banks.
"This is Tigris River?"
Upon hearing the emperor's question, the attendant quickly replied, "It is called Nymphaios River (later called Batman River), and it is a tributary of the Tigris River."
After crossing the river, the army officially entered Diyarbakir Basin and walked west along the road for a distance. The farmland on both sides of the road was replaced by pasture.
Vitus looked at this piece of yellow-brown grassland. The wild grass was withered and yellow, swaying back and forth in the hot wind. The shepherds in the distance were driving their goats away, worried that their flocks would be plundered by the army.
"It's very close to the river bank, why not bring water over?"
Vitus observed the grassland and found a long-abandoned ditch dozens of steps away.
The ditch is about waist deep and one meter wide, extending from east to west. Some sections have collapsed due to lack of maintenance for a long time.
He walked westward along the dry bottom of the canal for two hundred steps. He could still see the remains of the sluice gate in front of him. The stone pier stood in place, but the wooden gate above it had long since disappeared.
There were some vague words engraved on the stone pier. A servant came over to read it carefully and said to Vitus:
"Your Majesty, the stone pier was built in the last century. According to my guess, it may be that Timur killed too many people during the Western Expedition and no one maintained the ditch, so the nearby farmland degraded into Ranch."
Vitus stepped on the uneven grass back to the road, thinking deeply in his heart.
"During the Rome period, the irrigation canal system must have been repaired here. After Battle of Manzikert, Armenian Highlands fell into troubled times for nearly four hundred years. The irrigation canals were sometimes broken and repaired, and finally ended up like this.
In this decisive battle, we captured 15,000 prisoners of war. With this labor force, we can build Trace Italienne and water conservancy facilities in various places."
On July 14, the army came to the outskirts of Diyarbakir.
Tigris River flows from north to south, with vast areas of cultivated land and orchards cultivated on both sides of the river. The city is located on the west bank of the river and connects to the east bank of the river through a stone arch bridge.
The length of the arch bridge is nearly 120 steps, with ten large arches. The stone bridge is the same color as the city wall, both dark gray.
A Bridgehead was built on the east bank and is currently under the control of the defenders.
Soon, the defenders took the initiative to send envoys and put forward many conditions to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Vitus vetoed several of them, and the two parties ultimately failed to reach an agreement.
Vitus feels that there are few Armenia residents in the basin, and most of them are nomads or farmers of different cultures and religions. If Rome agrees to the demands of local forces, Rome's control over this land will decline sharply.
"According to the plan, this basin will be designated Province, and a lot of land will be allocated to soldiers, and some land will be allocated to churches and Garrison District. Keeping the original governance system will only get in the way, so we might as well clean it up at once to avoid endless entanglements."
Diyarbakir has a new type of city defense. The shape of Bridgehead on the east bank is similar to Trace Italienne. Vitus made a short observation and decided to give up attacking from the east bank.
He sent numerous cavalry to collect ships from settlements upstream and downstream, and then asked engineers to build Pontoon Bridge upstream.
In late July, the main force completed crossing the river and surrounded Diyarbakir from the west bank.
Vitus left ten thousand soldiers to dig trenches and attack the city. He led the remaining troops to continue westward and came to Adıyaman on the far west side of the plain.
This city is adjacent to the border, and dozens of miles further west is Lycia Province of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Some time ago, Antioch Frontier Army received the news and sent some troops to clean up the perimeter of Adıyaman, forcing the defenders to retreat into the city.
After the Eastern Roman Empire the main force arrived on the outskirts of the city, Vitus set up the command post in a noble manor in the northern suburbs, and Attica Legion began digging siege trenches.
On July 25th, Renaf came to see the emperor and reported to the emperor the situation since the beginning of the year.
"Since the war started, Mamluk has assembled troops in the north of Levant, about 30,000 people. Last month, they tried to attack the border, but without any results.
Recently, the enemy received news of White Sheep's defeat and quickly withdrew to the south of the border and began to repair defense facilities. Mamluk's new fortress imitated Rome Trace Italienne. I suggest launching an attack in advance, which should at least interfere with their construction."
Vitus declined the offer.
The war in the eastern part of the plateau is not over yet. How can you have the troops to attack Levant?
"You continue to guard the defense zone and wait until I resolve the eastern threat before launching a general attack on Mamluk next year."
The situation of Mamluk is different from that of White Sheep.
White Sheep is on the rise. The longer it takes, the more likely it is that Uzong Hassan will complete the change and transform into a system similar to Ottoman.
Mamluk There are no signs of changing the system. The channels for importing Western-style firearms have been almost cut off. Even if they are left alone, the future threat will be limited.
In the following time, Vitus stayed at Diyarbakir Basin, allowing the troops to adopt a rotation system. Half of the troops dug trenches, and the remaining half rested in the towns.
At the same time, local supplies and soldiers were transported to Lycia by sea, and then transferred to land transportation to supplement various losses to the field troops.
Matchlock has a cumulative loss of 3,100 pieces, some of which have repair value. Return Lycia Arsenal for repair.
The number of cannons scrapped was one hundred and eighty, and they needed to be recast.
The loss of firearms alone amounted to 40,000 Florin.
The total loss of war horses and Harness Horse was 7,000. The army captured White Sheep Army's horses to make up for this shortfall.
Clothing, boots, saddlery, tents, barrels, soap and other consumables are worth 60,000 Florin. Arsenal's production capacity is concentrated on weapons. These orders are usually given to private workshops, and the workshops are in a hurry to catch up, resulting in uneven quality.
The demand for food is not large for the time being.
Diyarbakir Basin is flat and prosperous and can supply most grains and vegetables. What needs to be supplied behind are bacon, wine, olive oil, vinegar, sucrose and other non-staple foods.
Vitus briefly scanned the account book, then walked out of the room and wandered around Garden outside to relax.
Persia style gardens focus on flowing water. The clear water flows along the channels and divides the courtyard into different areas. The vegetation in the garden is prosperous, with a particular preference for colorful flowers such as roses, tulips and violets.
Summer is scorching hot, and Vitus likes nothing more than to rest in the pavilion to relieve fatigue from overuse in the first half of the year.
As the breeze blew, he leaned against the railing of the pavilion, grabbed a handful of bread crumbs with his right hand and threw it into the water to attract fish to come and feed.
"After a battle, there are too many things to add. Fortunately, I established Field Logistics Department, so I don't have to deal with these accounts myself."